Chihayafuru (ã¡ã¯ã‚„ãµã‚‹) is a manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Suetsugu, serialised in Be Love and published by Kodansha. It is about a school girl, Chihaya Ayase, who is inspired by a new classmate to take up Hyakunin Isshu karuta competitively. It has been adapted into an anime television series, which aired on Nippon Television and Crunchyroll between October 2011 and March 2012. A second season aired between January and June 2013.
The manga has won the Manga TaishÅ Award and the Kodansha Manga Award. Since its fourth volume was released in March 2009, it has regularly appeared on the Japanese Comic Ranking chart, and in August 2011 was estimated to have sold over 4.5 million copies. Its popularity has boosted the profile of competitive karuta in Japan.
Plot
Chihaya Ayase is a girl who has spent most of her life simply supporting her sister in her model career. That changes when she meets a boy named Arata Wataya, a talented karuta player. After becoming friends, he believes that Chihaya has potential to become a great player. As Chihaya takes on a new dream of becoming Japan's best karuta player, she is soon separated from her karuta playing friends as they grow up. Now in high school, Chihaya is reunited with her childhood friend, Taichi Mashima. Together, they form the Mizusawa Karuta Club. With her teammates and friends supporting her, Chihaya strives to become the best karuta player in the world and to one day be with Arata again.
Development
Yuki Suetsugu belonged to a karuta club in senior high school, and feels that the school years are a period of a person's life where "you can dedicate the most genuine part of yourself to something". The name of the series is a poetic Makurakotoba, or pillow word, and comes from the first five syllables of the seventeenth poem in the Hyakunin Isshu poetry anthology, a collection of one hundred poems which are printed on the karuta cards.
Media
Manga
The manga has been serialized in Be Love since 2007, and has been collected by Kodansha into 26 bound volumes as of October 2014. As of 23 February 2012 Kodansha has also published the first two volumes in a bilingual edition, with English translations by Stuart Varnam Atkin and YÅko Toyozaki. The manga is licensed in Taiwan by Tong Li Publishing.
Anime
An anime television series based on the manga was announced in May 2011. The series was produced by the studio Madhouse under the direction of Morio Asaka with script supervision by Naoya Takayama and character designs by Kunihiko Hamada. The art director is Tomoyuki Shimizu, the director of photography is Kenji Fujita, the colour supervisor is Ken Hashimoto, the CG director is Tsukasa Saito, the music is by Kousuke Yamashita, and the sound director is Masafumi Mima. The series' 25 episodes aired on Nippon Television between 4 October 2011, and 27 March 2012. The series was simulcast in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand by Crunchyroll. Animax Asia aired their English adaptation of the anime from 13 February â€" 18 March 2013. The series was released in 9 volumes on DVD and Blu-ray Disc between 21 December 2011, and 22 August 2012, and as a complete set on Blu-ray Disc on 18 July 2013.
A second 25-episode season, Chihayafuru 2, aired on Nippon Television between 11 January and 28 June 2013, and was simulcast by Crunchyroll. An original video animation episode was released on DVD bundled with the special edition of the 22nd manga volume on 13 September 2013.
- Music
The first season's opening and ending themes are "Youthful" by 99RadioService and "Soshite Ima" (ãã—ã¦ã„ã¾, "And Now") by Asami Seto respectively. 99RadioService released "Youthful" as a single on 30 November 2011. Two original soundtrack and character song albums were released on 18 January â€" 28 March 2013. The second season's opening and ending themes are "Star" by 99RadioService and "Akane Sora" (茜空) by Seto.
Novel series
A 4-volume novel series was published by Kodansha under their KC Deluxe imprint between 9 September 2012, and 13 December 2013. The books were written by Yui Tokiumi and illustrated by Yuki Suetsugu and follow the middle-school years of the three protagonists.
Other
Kodansha released a guidebook for the series on 9 November 2011. It provides a study guide for the poetry and background for the story.
Reception
Chihayafuru won the second Manga TaishÅ award, and the 35th Kodansha Manga Award in the shÅjo manga category. When Chihayafuru won the Manga TaishÅ award, it was commented that the series combines elements of the sport genre and literary elements with a discerning eye on the subject matter.
In the week of 10â€"16 March 2009, the fourth volume of Chihayafuru appeared at #24 on the Japanese Comic Ranking chart, selling 29,776 copies in that week. In the week of 8â€"14 June 2009, the fifth volume appeared at #11 on the chart, selling 46,774 copies in that week. The next week, it slipped to #21, selling an additional 40,344 copies in that week. In the week of 7â€"13 September 2009, volume six of Chihayafuru appeared at #8 on the list, selling 61,089 copies. The next week, it appeared at #23, selling 45,028 copies in that week. In the week of 7â€"14 December 2009, the seventh volume ranked at number nine on the list, selling 70,790 copies. The following week, it ranked at #15, selling an additional 55,266 copies. The eighth volume of Chihayafuru ranked at #5 on the bestseller's list, selling 92,555 copies in the week of 8â€"14 March 2010. The following week, it slipped to seventh place, selling an additional 72,957 copies. For the week of 7â€"13 June 2010, the ninth volume of Chihayafuru appeared at #6 on the chart, selling 99,296 copies in that week. The following week, it slipped to ninth place, selling an additional 74,885 copies. The tenth volume of Chihayafuru placed first on the list for the week of 13â€"19 September, slipping to nineteenth place the next week. For the week of 13â€"19 December, the eleventh volume debuted at #2, slipping to #23 the next week. The twelfth volume appeared at #9 for the week of 7â€"13 March 2011, rising to #4 the following week. The thirteenth volume debuted at #3 for the week of 13â€"19 June 2011, slipping to #20 the following week. The fourteenth volume debuted at #3 for the week of 12â€"18 September 2011, slipping to #24 the following week.
As of August 2011, it was reported that there were sales of over 4.5 million copies of the manga volumes.
The popularity of Chihayafuru has boosted the popularity of competitive karuta.
Among North American reviewers, Gia Manry, writing about the first episode of Chihayafuru, felt that despite the animators' efforts, karuta seemed boring, and criticised the overuse of CG sakura, describing it as a "mixed bag" of an anime. Bamboo Dong says that Chihaya's passion and characterisation make karuta interesting. Carlo Santos felt that the series was the "first genuinely good show of the season", citing its characterisation, unusual subject, and polish of the first episode. Marcus Speer enjoyed the production values of the first episode, but felt that the theme songs were "standard fare". He was intrigued by how the characters' childhood impacted on their present interactions. Theron Martin appreciated the focus on the characters rather than the game, feeling that while the teenage Chihaya seemed "gimmicky", her younger self was "quite likable". Chris Beveridge praised the tension shown between Arata and Taichi in the second episode's karuta match. Theron Martin felt the second episode's karuta tournament was tense and compelling, and that despite the plot unfolding in a predictable fashion, the execution made this forgivable.
Notes
References
Further reading
- Animage, July 2011 p. 152
- Beveridge, Chris (15 November 2011). "Chihayafuru Episode #07 Anime Review". The Fandom Post. Retrieved 16 November 2011.Â
- Beveridge, Chris (8 November 2011). "Chihayafuru Episode #06 Anime Review". The Fandom Post. Retrieved 16 November 2011.Â
- Beveridge, Chris (2 November 2011). "Chihayafuru Episode #05 Anime Review". The Fandom Post. Retrieved 4 November 2011.Â
- Beveridge, Chris (25 October 2011). "Chihayafuru Episode #04 Anime Review". The Fandom Post. Retrieved 2 November 2011.Â
- Beveridge, Chris (18 October 2011). "Chihayafuru Episode #03 Anime Review". The Fandom Post. Retrieved 20 October 2011.Â
- Dong, Bamboo (16 November 2011). "The Stream - Back to the Future". Anime News Network. Retrieved 16 November 2011.Â
External links
- Official Kodansha site (Japanese)
- Official NTV site (Japanese)
- Official Crunchyroll site
- Madhouse : Exploring the World of Chihayafuru through Storyboards (Japanese)
- Chihayafuru Storyboard Guide (Japanese)
- Chihayafuru (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
- Chihayafuru (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
- ANN director & producer interview
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